God's Man

"I know who is John Galt, " said the tramp. "It's a secret, but I know it." "Who?" she asked without interest. "An explorer," said the tramp. "The greatest explorer that ever lived. The man who found the fountain of youth." "Give me another cup. Black," said the old bum, pushing his cup across the counter. "John Galt spent years looking for it. He crossed oceans, and he crossed deserts, and he went down into forgotten mines, miles under the earth. But he found it on top of a mountain. It took him ten years to climb that mountain. It broke every bone in his body, it tore the skinn off his hands, it made him lose him home, his name, his love. But he climbed it. He found the fountain of youth, which he wanted to bring down to men. Only he never came back." "Why didn't he?" she asked. "Because he found that it couldn't be brought down." - Atlas Shrugged by Ayn R...

I did not smile while taking this picture.  1st Tooth Out.  Somebody contact the Tooth Fairy. That is all I have for this Monday.  Things have been crazy and I didn't plan for this one.  I won't let the streak be broken.  Check out MckMama for all your Not me excitement.  Check out Momo's blog since she got me hooked on the Not Me Fun.

I did not have a very long list of Not Me Items only to have my computer crash eating my post.  I did not kick my desk knocking over a picture frame on it. I certainly did not try to recreate the magic of my last post and fail. I didn't write this list so as not to break my streak. Thanks to McMama for all the Not Me Hilarity.  Thanks to Momo for getting me hooked.  Thanks to Customer Support for getting my lappy back up and running.   God's Man   PS.  I am not asking all of my blog visitors to check out my church's fundraiser page .  We want to upgrade/replace our multimedia computers.  Please help us by donating or sharing our page (link) or both.  I will not be raffling off an iPod Touch if we meet our goal.

I was digging around on my computer and I found this.  I thought I would share it with you.  What do you think?   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   A Vision Shared - July 11, 2008   I was walking in a dark place when I heard God speak clearly to me saying, “Whom do you love?”   I thought of my wife, who is the closest to me.   Right before my eyes she appeared with a *Poof*.   Next my children and god-children appeared.   Then my parents and extended family walked into the room.   With each face I felt so loved and secure.   Next I thought of friends both near and far, Christian and not, close and distant.   One by one they showed up and my smile grew larger.     Next God asked me “What is important to you?”   So I started to see visual representations of my desires.   When I thought of my calling to preach a pulpit appeared.   M...

Well it is early Monday morning and I can't sleep. That is probably because I haven't started my Not Me post for this week. So I better get it done so I can get to sleep. Check out MckMama the one who started it all and my friend Momo who got me hook on all this Not Me craziness. So here is a bunch of things that I didn't do I did not get up and eat an entire section of graham crackers. I mean a guy training for a triathlon does not snack on sweets late at night. I did not laugh at my brides shocked expression when she walked into our dark living room and nearly tripped over our oldest, who was trying to avoid going to bed. I did not have a geek attack this week when my wife brought me Mango flavored Italian Ice. I certainly do not have mango-addiction. I can give them up any time. I did not research Mango butter only to find out it is like Cocoa butter and not Apple butter. I was not sad about the above revelation. I was not frustrated when I learned that the governme...

God has been dealing with me on the subject of relaxing. I have taken all of the reading that I have done and tried to pare it down into one page. I plan to build a sermon series out of this outline. Read over it and let me know what you think. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Relax Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. – John 14:27 Sermon Titles R ead His Word Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." –...

Dear God’s Scholar (aged 20), It is starting to make sense now. Don’t you wish you could go back and share some of what you see now with your younger self? I wish that we had taken our own advice but God has a plan and things are so amazing now. You will see soon enough. Choose your friends wisely. Surround yourself with smart people so you can all learn from each other. I know that you have put God on the back burner right now. Don’t forget Him. He is still protecting you even though you are trying to do everything to get away from Him. Let Him in and He will guide your steps. I know that your relationship doesn’t make sense right now. Why stay if it is driving you crazy, even alienating you from your friends? Move on. There is someone amazing on the horizon. When you meet a girl named Deidre, don’t ever lie to her. This will save you a crazy amount of heartache. Enjoy this time. You will never be here again. Some of the friends you make now will be some of the best ...

Dear God’s Senior (aged 17), Hopefully you have listened to what I have been telling you. I guess since I am still writing these you haven’t and everything is the same. You are going to get a fantastic opportunity this year. Don’t squander it. Get everything that you can out of it and do you best to keep that door open once you leave for college. Apply for scholarships, even though your GPA might not be the best. God will do amazing things in your life this year. Even more than you recognized earlier. He will only be limited by the amount of work that you put in. He will not do everything for you. There are some things that He requires of you. Enjoy Senior Year. You will never be here again. College is going to be awesome. Do everything you can to get there. God’s Man What would you tell yourself at this age? It wrote all of these in a rapid fire way. The rule I gave myself was what if you had to do it right now. No time to prepare. I look forward to hearing what you would say.

Dear God’s Freshman (aged 14), High School is going to be a blast. The only thing you need to remember is to focus. There will be a lot of things coming to distract you from what is important. God, School, Family, and Friends… This should be your priority list. I know that you are starting to feel disconnected from Church. Don’t let frustrations with the organization derail what you know God is calling you too. I know it seems scary and people make it seem awfully restrictive but it isn’t. THAT IS A LIE! I wish I could explain how freeing it is to work within God’s framework. Whatever you do don’t have sex with anyone until you get married. People are going to make up rumors about you doing it well before you actually do anyway. The whole try before you buy argument IS STUPID . Seriously commit yourself to finishing what you start. You will start some great things but you need to finish them to get the full benefit. Don’t quit football. Play the first season and then de...

What would you tell yourself if you could go back and talk with a younger you? Growing up I got a lot of advice from older guys about what life would be like. In some cases I wish I had listened and in others I wish I hadn’t. This was inspired by this post on Post Secret , which is an art project where you confess secrets over post cards. Dear God’s Boy (aged 8), I know that things seem hard now. School can be a pain, and it seems like Mrs. Taylor is extra mean to you, but apply yourself. Mrs. Taylor is looking out for you. You may not see it right now but she is trying to teach you something important. She wants you to understand that you are capable of so much more that you are showing. She sees how the other kids tease you about being smart and “talking white”. She doesn’t know any other way to motivate you other than pushing hard. Years from now you will see what she is doing but it will be too late to tell her thanks. Enjoy this time now. You’ll never be here again. Stick to your ...

Welcome to Monday.  Hopefully you know what that means, time for another Not Me post.  If you don't know what this is all about  check out McMama's Blog .  My friend Momo is the one who got me hooked on this.  Stop by her blog and let her know that this has taken hold of me.  Anyway, without further ado here is what I didn't do last week. I certainly didn't eat any of the Chocolate dishes that we had for Living Hope Church's Life Nite Challenge.  I am allergic and that would have made me feel awful.  Plus my wife would be mad at me. I definitely did not spend another hour trying to diagnose a connectivity issue between our Mac and our Windows 2003 data server at our church only to find out that an obscure setting deep in Network Policy editor fixes the problem. I did not breathe a sigh of relief when my oldest daughter asked to go to church with her grandpa and great-grandmother because this m...

Just thought since I just had a major accomplishment that I would take a moment to thank everyone who comes to visit this blog every day.  I find it interesting that 3 years ago I started this site to capture my thoughts and teach a lesson to my students about achieving your dreams.  I am still floored that I get around 400 unique visits per month.  Now I know that my serious blog and internet friends would say that is nothing but for me it is an accomplishment.   I am still trying to figure out where to go with this blog.  After my 21 days of fasting at the beginning of the year God has been putting some things on my heart but I have yet to put the "pen to paper".  2009 is going to be an interesting year for this country and I want to make sure that I am focused on the right things.  In the next few weeks I will putting out the new mission for God's Man.  Not much has changed, I still want to share what God is teaching me about being a man who is after Him.  There are ju...

Today's Not Me Post will be short as I have been dealing with craziness at work and the mess that I created in my life over the Valentines weekend. There is no way that I would ever write a one item Not Me Post just so I could say that I did not break my streak. No Not Me... Check out MckMama's Blog for all your Not Me Fun. You can also check with my friend Momo who got me started on the Not Me Bandwagon. This sorry Not Me post sponsored by the letters I and D the numbers 1 and 0 and our bonus letter is T. Put it all together and you'll know how I feel after last weekend. -God's Man

I think I may have a problem. I am hooked on Not Me Monday's . I have my good friend MoMo to thank for this. Check out McMama's blog for all the details and checkout all the other Not Me posters. So without further ado here is what I didn't do last week. I certainly did not start this post Sunday night hoping that I could get higher in the ranks on Monday. I did not accidently answer someone elses child when they asked their dad for some candy. I was not nervous as I posted to facebook, about my frustrations at work, when a friend reminded me that I have coworkers as facebook friends. I did not get freaked out when a coworker agreed to be my accountability partner as I prepare to do a triathlon this year. I was not distracted by my wife's beauty at church today. Nope my eyes were fixed on things above. Not things just below my eye level. ;) I was certainly not excited to see my new pseudo-daughter today. It is good to have her home. I did not almost curse a...

Let's play a game.  I'm going to list a group of things that are in the Stimulus Bill currently being debated in washington.  Say the phrase "We may not survive without" and then read each item in this list.  We are being told that as a country we need to do these things in order to Survive.  Really???   We May Not Survive without: 2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Dept. of Energy defunded last year because the project was inefficient $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film $650 million for the digital television (DTV) converter box coupon program $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship) $448 million for constructing the Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters $248 million for furniture at the new Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters $600 million t...

  Last week was very interesting.  I had planned to skip my Not Me post this week, check the rules on McMama's Blog,  when Momo posted her's I just had to.  So here are some things that I didn't do: I certainly did not become a frenzied twitter and facebook posting machine during the Super Bowl. I was definitely not rooting for Capitalism to win the game.  206M spent on commercials this year. I did not laugh and get a dirty look from my beautiful bride while watching the Mr and Mrs Potato Head commercial. I did not become enraged when I saw this magazine on the rack at Walmart.  I love seeing the President's on everything.  Really I do. I did not lash out at my bride on Saturday and I did not feel so bad that I made two posts apologizing and talking about what I learned .   My wife and I certainly didn't have a discussion about the above situation until the wee ho...

I used to enjoy peace and quiet. Give me a server closet with no windows and I was a happy camper. I get incredible pleasure out of quietly reading or writing. I often look for opportunities to get quite time for myself. It is near to impossible to find quiet time now. With 3 women in my house, 2 little and 1 big, there is lots of noise. It is funny how God arranges things in our lives to spark growth. I have learned that often God often uses the noise of life to speak clearly to us. I have spoken on this passage 1 Kings 19:11-14: Then he was told, "Go, stand on the mountain at attention before God . God will pass by." A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God , but God wasn't to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but God wasn't in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn't in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper. When Elijah heard the quiet voice, he muffled h...

A Man Of Destiny In A Time Of Need... Really??? I cannot stand it. Sorry needed to vent.

  Time to take a look at what I didn't do over the last week. Here is my not me entry for today. I did not post in 25 Random Things About Me that "I was married to the most wonderful women in the world." I did not break my blogging fast one night early so I could post the above link. I did not breathe a sigh of relief when my Mother In Law showed up yesterday because she could entertain the kids while I tried to make some desserts. I did not burn the above dessert anyway resulting in my having to throw away about 60 Hershey Kisses I did not get frustrated with God during my fast when He gave me some insight on a decision I had made.  I never argue with Him.  I am an obedient son. I did not allow my children to use me as an obstacle course so I could lie down for a few minutes. I certainly do not still have my Christmas decorations up on my house. I did not take pictures of my kids playing with ...

UPDATE: Thanks to my Big Brother Rick for reminding me that I am only married to one woman and now multiple women. My friend Momo tagged me so here are 25 thing about me. At one point I was one of 5 people in my family with the same first and last name I had a list growing up of the things I wanted to do before I got married and I did them all. I live in a neighborhood that was founded by my Great Great Grandfather and most of the people that have lived here are family. I have a ridiculous love of Mangos. I love comic books/video games/computer and most other nerdy pursuits. My wife and I plan to own a Villa here someday. I have worked for 3 companies that were in the top three in their industry. I was called into the ministry when I was a pre-teen but I ignored it until I was in my 20's. I am somewhat of an oddity in my family because of my political views. I am a voracious student of the founding fathers. I love to read and typically read 2-4 books every month. My wife and I ...